It happens. Someone in the office is cleaning out a filing cabinet, recycling old papers, creating space, decreasing the carbon footprint. All good! And that someone stumbles on an important-looking file. A file that doesn’t appear to have been touched for a while. As in a few years. “Do we have a corporate foundation?” that someone asks. “I’ve never heard of it.”

Where did that foundation come from? Perhaps it got lost in the shuffle of the merger. Or maybe the person in charge of the foundation retired last year and it’s just never been reassigned. Or maybe a handful of people know all about it, but the everyone else is in the dark. It happens! And it’s okay. Because something can be done. Build an action plan for your corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, including activities, program structure, timeline, budget considerations and roles and responsibilities to create an effective socially responsible lifestyle for your company. Make sure your roadmap reflects best practices in CSR. And that includes mission alignment with the company’s business, strategic selection of causes, efficient program structure, employee engagement, measuring progress and communicating success.

Corporate foundations are easy to manage if you have a plan. But they’re not so fun if you don’t have a plan.

How do you know your company needs a formula for CSR success? Got a foundation that doesn’t fit? That’s a pretty good clue.